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1642.  Gods rare workmanship in the Ant, the poorest bugge that creeps.—Rogers, ‘Naaman the Syrian,’ p. 74. (N.E.D.)

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1672.  There is a certain kind of Bug like a Beetle, but of a glistering brass colour, with four strong Tinsel Wings.—John Josselyn, ‘New-Englands Rarities,’ p. 39.

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1771.  Word used in modern English sense.—Advt., Mass. Spy, July 25.

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1787.  That pernicious insect commonly known by the appellation of the Hessian bug, as being generally destructive to the wheat.—American Museum, ii. 459 (Nov.).

5

1793.  No harvest came for Peleg,—the bugs had eaten, it, four years in advance.—Mass. Spy, Aug. 8.

6

1801.  A species of Bug has been discovered in the State of Connecticut, resembling in appearance and effect the imported Cantharides.—Lancaster (Pa.) Intelligencer, Aug. 12.

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1803.  The means of destroying the canker and bug worms.—Mass. Spy, June 29.

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1804.  The cause of the evil [among the South Carolina pine-trees] has been found to proceed from a small black winged bug, resembling the weavel, but something larger.—Id., Feb. 8.

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1806.  

        In wonder now I see thee tug,
With strength of nose, and head sublime,
Striving in vain, laborious bug,
To roll thy ball as fast as Time.
Verses to the Scarabæus, The Repertory (Boston), Sept. 2.    

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1815.  A traveller, relating what he had seen, mentioned a bug that was as large as a sheep. Indeed, said a bystander, and isn’t it called a hum-bug?—Mass. Spy, Aug. 2.

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1820.  Noises in the air, supposed to be the flying of bugs and beetles.—John Trumbull’s ‘Works,’ p. 66 (Hartford).

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1822.  That which produces the bugs and skippers in the meat, after it has been smoked.—Mass. Spy, Jan. 16.

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1835.  I could not help, however, thinking what pleasure or curiosity folks could take in sticking up whole rows of little bugs, and such like varmints.—‘Col. Crockett’s Tour,’ p. 44 (Phila.).

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1838.  Thus was the worthy naturalist relieved from an unpleasant predicament, not, however, without the loss of his box of bugs.—E. Flagg, ‘The Far West,’ ii. 26 (N.Y.).

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1839.  If farmers would scald their seed peas before sowing them, they would not be troubled by the bug.—Farmer’s Monthly Visitor, i. 68 (Concord, N.H.).

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1843.  Your favorite rural vicinity, where every boor and ploughman is classed in the memory of his neighborhood, like so many bugs and beetles in the Linnæan system.—Cornelius Mathews, ‘Writings,’ p. 136.

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1843.  The ladies pursued their walk gaily, and without any abatement of their merriment, clambering stone fences, and rail fences with wonderful agility, sometimes shrinking suddenly back at the sight of a bug, or shivering at the mere imagination of a snake in the grass.—Knick. Mag., xxi. 124 (Feb.).

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1848.  To examine Mary’s geological specimens, and Tilly’s cases of bugs and butterflies.—W. E. Burton, ‘Waggeries,’ p. 28 (Phila.).

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1857.  The buckwheat cakes partook equally of the characteristics of flannel and gutta-percha—andsometimes had insects (known as Croton-water bugs) in them.—T. B. Gunn, ‘New York Boarding-houses,’ p. 53.

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1867.  

        As these bring home, from every walk they take,
Their hat-crowns stuck with bugs of curious make,
So he filled all the lining of his head
With characters impaled and ticketed.
J. R. Lowell, ‘Fitz-Adam’s Story.’    

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